What if?
by athena2517
Summary: A stargate Continuum AU sam/jack. what if they were married before Jack died?
1. Chapter 1

_Sam fell to her knees by Jack's side. His shoulder had been stabbed and she needed to stop the bleeding. He was telling her to leave him behind. Like hell she thought. They had been through far too much to have him die on her because of some little wound. He stopped breathing and the light in his eyes faded. Her blood turned to ice in her veins. Her breath rasped in her throat. No. Mitchell grabbed her by her shirt and hauled her away from the body. Her instincts took care of the rest, her legs moving of their own accord. _

She bolted upright, awakening from her nightmare. Her surroundings were unfamiliar. She had just moved here. She fell back onto her pillows. It hadn't just been a nightmare, Jack had died back on that planet and now, separated from everyone she had every known, she was alone. This Jack didn't know her. He wasn't the one who laughed with her, fought with her, proposed to her, died for her. A tear leaked out from the corner of her eye. The way the Jack on this planet looked at her, with cold indifference, the way he yelled at her. She was so in love with her husband that she couldn't let him go. Especially since a version of him was still out there somewhere.

She wished she could talk to Daniel or Cam. She wished she could go back to the SGC. Her home was there, it would always be. Poor Daniel was literally missing a piece of himself. In her case it was just a piece of her heart, most of it in fact. It took a long time until she fell back asleep.

_What have you done with my people! Ah!_

"_SIR!"_

"_Jack!"_

"_Go to the gate!"_

"_Not without you!"_

"_Go!" he stopped breathing_

"_Alright you heard the man let's go! Carter!"_

"_Carter, what's going on?"_

"_I dunno."_

"_Look I know what happened back there, I know he was your husband, but I need you in the here and now wherever and whenever that is."_

"_Right." Except it was not right, nothing in the world was right he was gone._

_Was it really him? It was hard to tell beneath the clothes. When he spoke she could tell it was him, she would know that voice anywhere, she could hear it over machine gun fire and explosions. Her heart leapt. "We thought you were dead!" It took all of her self control not to throw her arms around him and kiss him, even if it meant frostbite. "Right back at you ma'am." Ma'am? Something wasn't right._

This time when she woke up she just got up. She'd had more nightmares in her life than most people. Dreams about Goa'uld and aliens, explosions and bullets, these were the worst. She couldn't even sleep without being reminded of what she had lost. She thought of the look on his face when Daniel tried to get him to remember them, yelling at them that his son was just fine. She should be happy for him, that he hadn't had to go through all that pain, but she wasn't. Maybe she was selfish but they had had such good times. She glanced over at the pictures on her desk. Two were of SG1, one with the original four, and one with Cam and Vala. The last picture was of her and Jack during their engagement. They were collapsed against each other in helpless laughter. She loved that picture and was glad she had had it on her when they went through the gate. If the government knew she had them they would probably burn them but what they don't know won't hurt them.

Nowadays she just drifted through life, taking out her frustrations any way she could and spent as little time in the outside world as possible. He'd called them freaks, that was the only thing he got right.


	2. Chapter 2

Almost a year later she was smiling. It was an unfamiliar feeling, her face felt stretched and her cheeks hurt. She thought of Cam and Daniel, she would finally get to see them again. The threat of imminent death didn't matter much, if that mattered they would never have gotten anywhere back at the SGC. They would get through it, they always did. She had her pictures back in her pocket where they belonged; she was starting to feel whole again.

The first person she saw was Daniel. She felt a shock when she saw the cane in his hand, she had almost forgotten about his leg. Maybe if she had thought it through she wouldn't have thrown herself at him as hard as she did but that required more will power than she had at that moment. "Daniel!" She cried and almost tackled him in a hug. They wobbled a bit but her being the military woman she kept balance for the both of them. "Sam! It's so good to see you!" She could hear the smile in his voice. "Well, I feel left out." Cam had just walked around the corner. "Cam!" She said and embraced him too. After he and Daniel had exchanged a manly hug with a lot of back-smacking they proceeded into the room with the president. She fought not to smile again when Daniel described what was coming as, "Death. Slavery. More slavery more death." And looked at them as if to make sure he had it right. She gave him a small grin of support.

Already the chemistry of the team was reasserting itself. The feeling that they had each other's backs no matter what, and they did. No matter their differences they always stood as a united front. She hadn't realized how much she missed that feeling until the hole in her heart was filled. Then the president just had to burst her bubble.

He brought up the weapons platform in Antarctica. The one that almost killed Jack. Her heart turned to ice as she considered the possibility that they might bring jack in on this again. She was afraid of seeing her own husband. She almost forgot where she was again when General Hammond walked in. "Sir, it's good to see you!" he looked at her strangely and she almost banged her head against the wall as he said, "If you say so."

A few hours later she was floating on air. Literally, she was flying again. She had missed it so much; this was turning out to be a pretty good day. All that it would take to make it would be kicking the goa'ulds collective behinds, going back to her timeline and spending an enjoyable evening with her husband and she would be on top of the world. Of course she already was, she had forgotten how beautiful clouds looked when you were at their level. She remembered floating above the earth, in orbit. Jack telling her to look at the view out of the top window. It had been beautiful, like a gift from him. Maybe she was being too romantic, she figured she was allowed to be after all they'd been through.

She was broken roughly out of her reverie with the news that McMurdo had been destroyed. "Kiss your ass goodbye." So much for her evening plans. A while later she watched as a plane blew up. She did as Cam said and broke right. The familiar feeling of adrenaline hitting her system filled her like electricity. The sky started raining fire. _Kiss your ass goodbye. _She heard Daniel ask what city was below them. She didn't have to listen to the answer, she could already feel the sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach, _Washington, kiss your ass goodbye. _"The Russians have the other one. Do what you need to do." She wasn't sure whether that was a good thing or a bad thing. Every time she thought of the Russians in relation to the SGC she thought of Jack telling the Russian general right to his face that he would put a Russian member on his team over his rotting corpse. This was going to be fun.


	3. Chapter 3

Gliders at 80,000 feet. How easy it was to get rid of every trace of fear. She was in the zone. "We will engage." _Wait…what? _These people had never seen what a glider was capable of. They wouldn't last a minute. Mitchell was right though, they had to complete their mission. "Here they come!" Perhaps it wasn't necessary for her to point that out but it felt like the right thing to do. Their two escort fighters peeled off and went after the gliders, spraying what looked from this distance like little sparks against the night.

The first fighter lasted all of one second. After checking with Mitchell she went down to the deck, flying lower always made her uneasy, as if she was going to fly into something, which was ridiculous, they were only flying over water, spraying water back right into the gliders faces. Six bogeys were headed straight for them, when she saw they were not gliders she heard Daniel spouting Russian over the radio. If they hadn't been flying for their lives she might have laughed at his bluntness, "We are Americans please shoot the people chasing us." She settled with a smile underneath her mask.

She caught sight of the icy land ahead and heaved a silent sigh of relief, sitting in a cockpit for that long was very uncomfortable when you weren't used to it. The car ride wasn't much relief. When they arrived she almost groaned. Cam stole her thunder by saying, "This is not encouraging." The kid that showed them around confirmed his prognosis of "not encouraging." Daniel's query asking if there were "any grownups around that we could talk to" did not help. What she assumed were Russian curses ensued. "Boys," she warned patronizingly "We need power." Daniel seemed to refocus and remember where he was. Of course that does not help when there is nothing to focus on due to lack of power.

No power no gate. A sound like an Al kesh landing filled the cold, empty building. This day just kept getting better and better. Right on cue making it worse Cam pointed out, "It's landing on the roof, great." The Russian kid handed Cam a gun and Sam took hers out from her waistband. "Teal'c?" Cam asked. Sam's heart lurched she wasn't sure whether she was happy or about to be shot by a staff weapon. She held her gun in uncertain hands, she would shoot him if she had to, he wasn't her Teal'c, after all. Ba'al had definitely known which button to push, and Ka'tesh, poor Vala was still possessed. It made her sick to think that Teal'c was actually risking his life to avenge a goa'uld but since it was on their way, "Well, that sounds great we'll help out, right guys?" "Sure, why not?" Sam agreed. "I'm not busy." Daniel chimed in. "Let's do it!" Cam said looking ready to blow someone's head off. In a choice between death and help avenging his fallen god, Teal'c chose correctly. In a surprising twist Teal'c lowered his weapon first. "This device will power the Chapa'ai." She could have kissed him.

The device he brought dialed the gate and her head filled with memories of home with the sound of the gate activating. She should have foreseen the Jaffa turning on them, this time it wasn't the goa'uld Teal'c turned against. Cam tried to reason with him using soul-searching reasons of why he should trust us. Fortunately, she had known Teal'c much longer than Cam, "Because we can offer you the freedom of your people." She played the freedom card; she knew it was the only way to get his attention quickly. Convincing him of it was a different matter. "Really?" Cam asked, she could have slapped him. "This is Ba'al's failsafe it has to be." She silently thought, _Please let me be right please let me be right please let me be right!_ Looking around she gained confidence, "This whole place must be his time machine." Teal'c believed her, and Cam got his gun back.


	4. Chapter 4

Lights blinked on as Teal'c walked forward. Daniel started doing what he did best, talking, "Teal'c you have to understand, in the timeline we just came from the goa'uld were defeated and the jaffa are free. Ba'al used a machine to go back in time and change all that. He made you his first prime and Katesh his queen so he could control you." Teal'c, his eyes following Daniel underneath his trademark raised eyebrow, "This was the secret for which Ba'al was murdered." Cam almost made her smile a little while after, when Teal'c realized that Ka'tesh was going to use the device for herself and realized that their goals were the same. Time to speak up.

"Teal'c if you let us use this device we can return history to the way it was meant to be." She filled the last phrase with all of her resolve, it would make everything better. She could make it work, that was what she did. "The goa'uld will be gone?" She nodded, happy despite the tension in the room that she could, in a way, make his dream come true. "My people will be free?" She knew him well enough that she could hear the hope and triumph in his voice. "You have our word." Daniel said. "Let it be done." His deep voice rumbled.

Sam used all her willpower not to leap to the console. She had missed this. At this point she was in the habit of explaining everything as she went."It'll just take me a few minutes to figure out exactly how it works." She ran her eyes over the alien controls, looking for a place to start. In the back of her mind she heard Teal'c ominous warning and the handing around of weapons. Cam come up behind her as she put the pieces of the puzzle together. "You heard the man."

The pillar behind them lit up, and the milkyway galaxy lit up the ceiling. The sheer magnitude of what she was doing hit her then. Again she reasoned aloud. _Solar flares_ of course! Teal'c's deep voice and the sound of rings was a jolt to her heart. "They are here." Her friends started firing, her fingers itched to pick up a gun and help but the only way to help them at this point was to put things back to the way they used to be. She searched frantically for a suitable flare. "Sam!" Daniel cried, and she turned her head quickly, her heart beating hard against her ribs, she had to get this done! She passed him her gun. _Oh crap. _"I've found one but you're not gonna like it!" Neither would she. 1929? That was _not _where she wanted to be! "That'll have to do because I'm almost out of bull-" Her heart froze as Daniel's voice was cut off. She turned around in time to see him fall to the floor. She held back a scream. She focused on the problem, it was the only way to save Daniel now. 20 seconds to get through the gate, she shouted instructions. She dialed like the wind.

A searing pain in her back, she jerked forward from the blast. Time seemed to slow, she had finished the job. She could feel her body falling to the ground. She smiled through the pain. _Everything is going to be okay. _She could almost hear Jacks voice, _always_ She could almost feel his touch and his love for her.

"CARTER!" Mitchell's cry echoed as if coming from far away "It's okay." She whispered, the sounds of gunfire and violence drowning her out. "It's okay, This will never have happened."

She kept smiling as the room seemed to grow dimmer. _I love you Jack, I love you! I'm doing this for you! I don't want to take you away from your son in this life, but we have fun, we have had fun. You'll be happy again, you and me and the team You can't hear me, you won't know that this ever happened but now_ I _know, beyond any doubt that I love you, and I love our life together. _

A Samantha Carter died that day. She had been dead to others long before. She died and that is sad, but its okay, it's all going to be okay because she died loving someone. Can anyone ask for more? You can say it never happened, that it was paved over by the laws of the universe and of time but what she did there was fighting until the end for what she believed in and for the people who loved her the most. That certainty and absence of doubt can't be taken away from any Samantha Carter, in any parallel universe, in any time. It is a part of her, and it makes her someone worth all that love. It's self fulfilling. Through this act, she gave herself that certainty, and that certainty lead to this act. And now, she is at home, with her husband, and her friends because she succeeded in putting things right. Our hero, Samantha Carter.

"Begin the extraction process." _Finally!_ She thought, looking over at her husband, she could see the same thought written all over his face. The device slowly made its overly dramatic journey towards Ba'al's head. This was the part she hated, when the voices of the parasite and host echoed in a single scream. It made her sick, but she couldn't suppress the feeling of triumph that he was finally gone. "Behold! The last of the system lords!" Glass shattered and the symbiote squealed as it died. Jack looked like he wanted to shoot it as well. "I guess that was worth seeing." Cam said. Daniel didn't seem satisfied with his reaction. As she could have predicted Jack agreed with Cam. "Nope, that's pretty much the extraction ceremony right there." She smiled and nodded. "So, lunch anyone?" God, she loved him. He could watch the event they had been waiting for so longshe couldn't remember when she first started dreaming of this moment, the system lords were gone. Jack wanted lunch, she kissed him instead. He smiled. Then looked disappointed when no one seemed overly enthusiastic. "I'm buying?" he tried. "I'm in." Cam said. She changed out of her uniform and met back up with Jack for lunch. "So that's it. No more system lords." He wrapped his arms around her. "No more super snake heads." She put one arm around him and went to join the others.


End file.
